After a summer season filled with festivals, parades, and cultural events, it’s become pretty clear that Montreal is an established cultural hub that features something for everybody – including those who are more inclined towards a complete sensory immersion. Enter MUTEK, an organization centered on bringing new forms of expression related to creativity in sound, music, and audio-visual art, a form of creativity that often makes underground acts more accessible to the mainstream.
This year marked MUTEK’s 18th edition, with celebrations taking place from August 22 to the 27th. Audiences were blown away by the unique visions of more than 120 artists, with 50 performances labelled Canadian, North American, and world premiers. Each show was a marriage between the visual and auditory, a mix that invited audiences to share in unique world views through a communal experience.
There was no shortage of events to become immersed in, as there were both paid and free shows that took place every night of this extended 6-day festival. MUTEK is committed to bringing together some of today’s most unique experimental artists, and the whole event carried an intimate feel on a global scale thanks in part to the variety in artists performing, in addition to a special four-day programming that was dedicated to the cultural metropoles of London, Mexico City, Barcelona, and Berlin. Audiences got an insider’s perspective into current socio-political and economic issues experienced through art and music as each performer attempted to harness their hometown pride and energy and share a piece of their world with festival goers.
Whether the clips were of the artist’s own creative journey or presented viewers with reality bites from their countries, viewers were able experience a full sensory immersion and were transported into various worlds in which reason takes a backseat to storytelling and pure emotions.
This year, the sets spanned across the city, with locations like Métropolis, MUTEK’s new WILDER building, to outdoor spaces like the Esplanade de la Place des Arts. Each day was packed with events at various locations, so checking out MUTEK’s site or downloading the festival’s own specially designed app to get the low-down on all the artists, prices, and locations is a must for next year’s event.
Photos by Bruno Destombes and Trung Dung Nguyen.
